From Robert Scoble’s rant against bad public relations practices to the targeting of  ‘spin doctors’ for layoffs by State Services in New Zealand, the perception of the professional communicator’s value seems to be dropping faster than the Dow Jones Index after a major bank failure. International Association of Business Communicators Chair Barb Gibson recently brought the New Zealand action to the attention of IABC members in her blog. Her call to action was to have each of us start “speaking up for our profession.”

I agree that the State Services action does not seem like a good idea. I have no idea how well their PR professionals performed, but the choice of language (“spin doctors”) that made its way to the media was not exactly complementary. (Without better knowledge of their situation who can say if the firings were justified or not?) What I disagree with is that communicators should just be “speaking up” for their profession. That’s not enough.

We should be stepping up.

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